Review also posted to my blog.


content warnings: violence, parental abuse (discussed), abandonment, attempted human sacrifice, cult activity, homophobia
representation: indonesian bisexual main character, gay main character, korean main character, asian lesbian main character, bisexual main character, pansexual asian side character, aro/ace mexican side character, bisexual side character

“I want to do this myself. And I want more than to be head of an Institute. I’ve realized - I don’t need to change. And neither do you, Helen, or you, Aline. It’s the world that needs to change, and we’re going to be the ones to change it.”

Yes, I know that this took me nearly four months to read, but I've been having a weird reading slump where reading physical books is just not working for me and I didn't want to ruin this book by reading it when I wasn't in the mood. But now I've finally finished it and, unsurprisingly, I loved it.

This is set during City of Fallen Angels during the time when Magnus and Alec are MIA because they're on vacation. The entirety of this book chronicles said vacation as, while enjoying themselves in Europe, they discover that a cult known as the Crimson Hand has started causing some trouble and Magnus might have accidentally founded this cult back in the day for a laugh.

I'm not gonna lie, I was nervous going into this book because, quite frankly, reading about Alec and Magnus' relationship in CoFA/CoLS is kind of painful for me. Particularly in CoLS, a lot of their relationship feels defined by their distrust of one another and is all just leading to their inevitable breakup at the end of that book.

Luckily, while this book deals with them still being somewhat unfamiliar with each other because of how new their relationship is, it isn't too focused on Magnus' secrets and Alec's insecurity. It cares a lot more about their blossoming relationship and their European shenanigans. In fact, this book (along with QoAaD and TLIL) gave me a greater appreciation for their relationship as well as both of them as individual characters.

Aside from them though, the rest of this book is populated with a lot of our other favourite queer characters. In fact, with the notable exception of a new character Shinyun, every major character falls somewhere on the LGBTQ+ spectrum. In a lot of ways, this book feels like a celebration of the LGBTQ+ Shadowhunters characters, with a narrative focused solely on them and them being allowed to be as queer as they like.

We get Aline, plus Alec not realising how unbelievably gay Aline is and assuming she's still longing after Jace; we get Helen, who's first introduced to us making out with the lovely Lily Chen; and, most importantly, we get these two meeting each other, not liking each other, learning to respect each other, and being head over heels for each other in a matter of around a hundred pages. Knowing that they end up very much in love and married just made their interactions even cuter.

We also got a return appearance of Lily and Raphael, who also get to be delightfully queer. Lily is at peak pansexual immortal, making out with (according to her) six faerie girls, four faerie boys, and a talking toadstool with an unknown gender at a single party. Then there's Raphael, who is at peak Done aro/ace, declaring that his sexuality is 'not interested'.

I know I'm going on about the LGBTQ+ content of this book but it was honestly so lovely so read a YA fantasy that just basks in its queerness. I could go on for ages about how I genuinely feel like Cassandra Clare doesn't get enough credit for her inclusion of LGBTQ+ people in her books, but that's a rant for another time.

On a plot level, this book isn't fantastic but it also isn't bad by any means. It's a fun, adventurous romp with an element of mystery which, while not being overly amazing in the grand scheme of things, is still good enough to keep you entertained while the characters are enthralling you.

I know this review was a bit all over the place, but oh whale. If you're a fan of the Shadowhunter books, or even if you remember reading TMI back in the day and liking Malec, then I would recommend giving this a look because it's just an entertaining, gay ol' time.